Rang Rasiya: A Pash Fest

09Nov

Ketan Mehta weaves magic once again on the silverscreen, this time with a tender, vibrant, touching and stirring love story that exists in her heart and his mind!

The cast is a winner! Hooda is effortlessly intense, jovial, blind in passion, untrustworthy, self righteous, a genius, a fighter and selfless, all at the same time. He has a regal enough face (especially with that perfectly aristocratic nose), that can as easily look stubborn, lecherous and manipulative. Nandana Sen looks divine, elegant and enticing. She does justice to her role and doesn’t look vulgar or out of place in that hugely publicised love-making scene. If anything, she makes it appear graceful and so believable. The chemistry is superb and they sizzle on screen.

Dialogues in the movie are superbly timed and poignant even today (like when an untouchable grabs RaviVerma by his hand and takes him to her basti with “Aap bhagawan ko (mandir se) bahar le aaye!” and the astute business man Paresh Rawal claiming that, “Bhagawan sabse zyada bikta hai!”)

But the movie largely disappoints! Like everything else Bollywood, the reality is romanticised beyond belief! What happened would have been great if it was as it was in the movie! If it wasn’t for Hooda and Nandini carrying the story through and making it believable the movie would have fallen flat! Even the much talked about scene of passion could have stopped at the subtle and poetic depiction of them lying intertwined with her covered in paint (only) and him nothing, instead of making it in your face, with an awkward build up and the gawky kissing that precedes this shot! Bollywood needs to rediscover the beauty of leaving things unsaid! Music and cinematography were average!

Advise to all… please see it on big screen for full impact! I would give it a 3 out of 5 more for the story telling and the cause and the dialogues and of course the superb acting by Hooda! I always knew he was a man of substance… he has finally met his match!